Memoir of a Jaded Woman

A blogger becomes inspired by a friend’s troubled marriage in this relationship guide.

While working in Arizona, La-Paz (Why Do Married Men Cheat with Unattractive Women? 2011, etc.), “a five-foot- seven-inch black woman who had to watch my weight continuously to fit the bill as a print model,” met blonde, “regal” Judie on a photo shoot. Although Judie “had graced the cover of numerous high-end magazines,” she was desperately unhappy, having recently discovered that her photographer husband was cheating on her with an unattractive fast-food worker. Judie’s angry pal Jessie encouraged La-Paz to write a book about this phenomenon—men having affairs with women less attractive than their wives—which led to La-Paz meeting Judie’s soon-to-be ex and his girlfriend. She also gathered together a focus group of “seasoned women who have overcome every aspect of a challenging marriage” and created a blog in which other people could sound off about infidelity. In this book, La-Paz shares highlights of these meetings and submissions; she also weaves in the relationship challenges of her own girlfriends and of the women in her Bible study group. She wraps up by sharing Judie’s 40-day journal, revealing the model’s post-divorce journey to greater self-love and a new, happier relationship; she also reveals the testimony of one of the “seasoned women” who got over her rage and bitterness—and saved her marriage—by turning to God. The author brings a lively, wry tone to this book, which includes many of her own entertaining opinions (“There was a new queen in his life, Ms. Burger Queen. Judie was now an outcast vegetarian, tossed to the side like a bag of soggy lettuce”). Overall, this is a compendium of raging, amusing, and ultimately balanced perspectives, including those of many men and their girlfriends. La-Paz’s advocacy of Bible study is admirable; however, it sits a bit oddly at times in this book’s worldly, “jaded” mix.

Pleasurable venting with a positive, uplifting ending.